Bill Gates for President

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has jumped on the bandwagon to elect Bill Gates as president of the USA in 2008 citing his business success and charitable efforts.

(Hey, we've had worse)

What do you think? Ross Perot was a businessman as was Jimmy Carter, so it's not unheard of (though Steve Forbes never got more than a few percentage points)

Visit the Gates for President site and then vote in the Great Lakes Geek survey.

The Office

I am a big fan of The Office. I was even given a Dwight K. Schrute bobblehead which sits atop one of my PCs.

Read Dwight’s blog

But it’s that other Office that can get confusing.

You won't be able to upgrade your Microsoft Office 2000 in January so you will miss out on the less expensive upgrade price.

Read about some strategies you might want to try to get the lastest office and spend the least.

Get your own Dwight Schrute Bobble Head

Very short stories from Wired Magazine

Last month’s Wired magazine (which I just got around to) has an outstanding section called Very Short Stories. It’s based on Hemingway’s six word story which Papa called his best work. Here it is:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.


Brilliant! So Wired got 33 writers to come up with 6 word science fiction stories and some are just incredible.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Computer – Did we bring batteries? Computer?
By Eileen Gunn

Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.
By Vernor Vinge

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses
By Richard Powers

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
By Orson Scott Card

Check it out:

OSU-Michigan or Six Sigma?

Former GE CEO Jack Welch spoke at Tri-C Corporate College this AM about quality and innovation. Throughout the day there will be classes on lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and other processes.

Welch began his presentation with an announcement of a special Six Sigma presentation to be held the next day (Saturday) at 3:30 PM that will go for about 3 hours (during the Ohio State-Michigan game). Moderator Les Vinney, CEO of Steris, countered that “Hopefully by halftime we’ll be able to attend.”

Welch said he didn’t know who would win the big game. “I went to Illinois – we can’t beat anyone.”

Ohio State Buckeyes vs Michigan Wolverines

Here's a bunch of jokes trashing Michigan for this Saturday's big game. Feel free to replace Michigan with Pittsburgh Steelers in time for Sundays game. ;-)

Go Bucks and Go Browns!

Hidden Treasures

I also checked out the preview of the Hidden Treasures of the Diocese of Cleveland at Josaphat's Art Hall on 33rd. Not a lot of items there but it is such a cool place and the items were interesting. Check it out while you can - it's free.
More information.

Fabulous Cleveland Women

I spent much of the weekend at the Fabulous Food Show at the IX Center. ClevelandWomen.com had a booth and there were about 35,000 attendees!

The celebrity chefs get treated like rock stars.

We posted a bunch of pics on the ClevelandWomen.com site - Robin Swoboda (remember her? She'll have a new show this January on Fox 8) , Paula Deen, Bubba Baker, Carl Monday and more

Absolutely Fabulous

The Fabulous Food Show is Friday-Sunday at the IX Center.

I’ll be in booth # 467 for ClevelandWomen.com a good chunk of the time though may be sampling some vino occasionally.

We (ClevelandWomen.com) are giving away over $35,000 in spices and seasonings from Durkees/Tone Brothers.

Also, some great raffle prizes from Dollar Bank (4 Tribe club seats with food!), Plant Magic (a holiday centerpiece), John Roberts Spas (Spa package) and more.

Stop by and say “Hi”

17 Seconds in Heaven?

Time is relative of course but 17 seconds isn’t very long (unless you are underwater or in terrible pain or…)

But Dr. Miles Jones of Net Doctor International told me that on average, we only have 17 seconds to explain our situation to our doctor before he or she takes over the conversation.

And then the whole visit is only 13 minutes including the greeting, checking the chart, small talk and writing up the new information.

That’s just one of the reasons that Dr. Jones is an advocate on on-line healthcare. For more, listen to the podcast from the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit.

Oy Vey

I’ll admit that I don’t know any Hebrew (outside of a few characters used in mathematics) but I do get a kick out of a lot of the Yiddish terms I hear used. There’s a bunch of them here.

It's a really rich language and some words describe the situation better than any English counterpart I can come up with.

And I haven’t yet seen a Microsoft Zune. I’ve been happy with my Creative MuVo mp3 player that I've had forever.

What’s the connection?

Some Hebrew linguists (they are divided on this issue) say that the word “zune” is pretty darn close to the Hebrew vulgarity for the “f” word.

Microsoft says they are aware of the similarity in pronunciation
to the Hebrew zi-yun.

I think it’s bobbyemseh that Microsoft did this on purpose. Probably some alter cocker came up with this. Some people will kvetch about anything. Be a mensch, not a schmendrick.

Zie Ga Zink. ;-)

Bang a Gong

Yikes! The Bell of Free Speech has been Silenced as the Historic City Club of Cleveland Gong goes Missing.

Missy Toms just sent out this message.

City Club employees believe that the gong and gavel, which are valued at $4,000, were taken sometime between 6 p.m. on Friday, October 13, 2006, and 11 p.m. on Saturday, October 14, 2006. City Club officials are reviewing building security tapes in hopes that they will be able to determine what happened.

The gong was donated to The City Club by Dr. Louis Siegelstein, a City Club member. His family obtained the gong from what was then Shanghai, China in the 1930s. Since then, the gong has signaled the beginning and the closing of all City Club Forums and programs. It is heard every Friday on the live radio broadcasts of City Club Forums on WCLV-FM and on The City Club’s radio network, which includes more than 200 stations across the country. In addition, viewers see it every week on the WVIZ television broadcast of Friday Forums.

The City Club will not seek prosecution if the person returns the gong. Anyone with information about the gong is asked to call The City Club at 216.621.0082.

”The City Club gong is an immensely important artifact for The City Club and the city of Cleveland. It has become a symbol of free speech, ringing in historically significant speakers for many years, including several U.S. presidents and Cleveland mayors, Babe Ruth, and Rosa Parks,” says City Club executive director James Foster. “We hope that the person who took the gong will realize its value to our region and the nation. We welcome its return with no questions asked.”

Let' get that gong back!

Guns and Websites

We’ve all been to way too many business and/or tech presentations in some stuffy conference room. Yawn.

But the folks at Aztek Technology know how to do it up right.

They hosted a new technology presentation on Thursday September 28th that covered a lot of new and interesting technology. But what set this demonstration apart from others was the location and the after-meeting activities.

Aztek’s Kevin Latchford is a long-time member of the Beaver Creek Club in Amherst so the event was held in the clubhouse on their 500+ acre spread. After the presentation the attendees were taken out to use the extensive shooting facilities at the club. (That's Aztek's Stacie Baske in the photo)

Check it out

Larry Ellison in Cleveland?

Hard to imagine isn't it? Gary Baney, Founder and CEO of Boundless Flight thinks so. Gary is a kindred spirit to the Oracle founder. He works very hard and plays very hard and sees Cleveland as too often accepting comfort and mediocrity.

What do you think?

I did an audio interview with him and it’s the current show at GreatLakesGeek.com. It’s 16 minutes but worth the listen. I’m really interested in feedback from both the native Clevelanders and some of you transplants. Comment here or via the e-mail link on the Baney interview page.

Guy Kawasaki

I posted some details and pics from the Guy Kawasaki keynote address last night on
the Great Lakes Geek site

Chairs were set up on the stage of the State Theater so now I (and a bunch of other folks) can claim to have appeared on stage at the State.

Ah, End Users

I know it’s almost a cliché to talk about the “ignorant” end user. You know, the person searching for the “any key” or using the CD tray as a cup holder.

But this one was new (to me) and funny.

A help desk guy got an end user on the line and started walking through steps to try and troubleshoot. He asked her to go to My Computer and in a few moments, there she was with phone in hand. She did what she was told and went to “My Computer”

Sudoku, Podcast... De-crapifier?

Look out Sudoku and Podcast. You may have been the most popular words for 2005 but there is a new kid in town.

A guy who was tired of uninstalling all the, uh, stuff on new Dell PCs created a script that would automatically remove it all.

He called it the Dell De-Crapifier and after hearing from Dell he has since renamed it the PC De-Crapifier.

Let's all conjugate together:
I de-crap
You de-crap
He/She/It de-craps

and so on. More details and a link.

Mike Douglas

Mike Douglas passed away this AM on his 81st birthday. He was a cool guy and way ahead of his time as a TV host. In the turbulent 60's this rather unhip guy was bringing people like John Lennon and Yoko Ono on his show.

We did an interview with him a few years ago. Check it out - some pictures too.

Health Care Shockers

I listened to Kaiser Permanente’s Patricia Kennedy Scott speak at the SmartBusinessLive luncheon on August 10th. “Our health care system, in my view, is fundamentally broken.”

The most amazing stat to me was that 90% of the healthcare dollars are spent on 10% of the population! Wow!

Read more and see some pics of the event at GreatLakesGeek.com

Botanical Gardens 7-21-06

As I often say, if you can't find something fun to do in this city you really aren't trying. Even the weather cooperated last Friday night for the Young Professionals in the City event at the beautiful Cleveland Botanical Gardens.

Mayor Frank Jackson was very accessible and held an extended Q&A session with the several hundred in attendance.

I shot a few pics and so did Thomas Mulready.

Cleveland Cooks

You know those special recipes that have been your family's favorites for years? Maybe they were brought over from the "Old Country" by a relative. Maybe there's a unique or funny way that you always serve it. Or maybe it's just a tried and true recipe that always gets raves.

We've gathered these best recipes and assembled them all in one cookbook to show that Cleveland Cooks!

There are over 350 recipes from your neighbors and friends as well as local celebrities such as Dick Goddard, Wilma Smith, Romona Robinson, Lee Jordan, Al Roker, Stacey Bell, Sister Mary Assumpta, Mary Ann the Ghost Whisperer, Les Roberts, Food TV's Jack Hourigan, Hoolihan, SuperHost, Miss Barbara, George Nemeth, Thomas Mulready and many more.

Look for delicious recipes celebrating the diverse ethnic makeup of Cleveland - Hungarian, Jewish, Italian, Armenian and many more.

The cookbooks are available at many local summer fests and shows or you can order online.

Part of the proceeds from the book will benefit Computers Assisting People (CAP).

Get details at ClevelandCooks.com